6 Signs You Grew Up In The Irish Countryside

Jeff

Growing up in the Irish countryside certainly brings a lot of fond memories. If you’re from the countryside, you can definitely relate to having experienced these fun and sometimes amusing situations.

Mass was a place to be seen.

Going to mass is not just a religious affair. It’s a social obligation, too. Missing the weekly pilgrimage to the Sunday mass is a big no-no in your household because it would have the other families gossiping. As the years went on, going to mass also has given you the opportunity to meet that girl you fancied.

You shared teachers with other classes.

If you grew up in a very remote part of the country, there is a huge likelihood that your primary school was a very small one. As a result, seeing your teacher jump from one class to the other, including those with older students, has become a common occurrence for you.

You were involved in many Townies vs Culchies debates.

Dubliners would usually class any person from a county other than their own as “culchies.” In Rural Ireland, this classification is then subdivided into those who live “where mammy does the shopping” as “townies” and those who have an acre of empty field within walking distance of their home as “culchies.” There’s an intense rivalry between the two groups, especially during sporting events, and you’ve had your fair share of defending one side from the other.

You learned how to drive on the worst possible roads.

Narrow roads, potholes, wandering elderly pedestrians, slow moving tractors—you’ve probably experienced them all while learning how to drive in the countryside. As such, being stuck in traffic in the city no longer fazes you.

You had the parish priest come in to pray for big GAA games.

You take GAA games very seriously and despite all your hard work and dedication, you still think that you need to bring out the big guns to tip the scales to your team’s favour. So you have constantly asked the parish priest to come in and offer a prayer to God because you’re madly convinced that this is what your team needs to win.

Ditching school was rarely successful.

City-dwellers probably think that it’s easy to ditch school and not get caught in the countryside. However, you’ve experienced firsthand that this isn’t true. There was always one teacher who would go the extra mile (literally) and search the vast Irish countryside just to hunt those who attempt to leave school before the bell rang.